These days, the insurance industry is as high tech and cutting edge as any other industry. Online insurance quotes are just a couple clicks of the mouse away, and you can conduct all of your business without ever coming ace to face with an insurance agent, much less the other people who are insured by the same company.

But the insurance business wasn’t always that way. Insurance has its roots in China, dating way back to the 2nd millennium BC. Chinese merchants often had to transport their goods over dangerous river ways. To ensure that no one lost all of his goods, several merchants would band together and share cargoes, so that each merchant had some cargo on each boat. That way, even if a merchant lost his boat, he would only lose a small percentage of his wares (and everyone else’s).

The Ancient Babylonians were the first ones known to have official written insurance agreements. Ship captains would pay money for a form of pirate insurance, which guaranteed that their shipments would be paid for if they were stolen. Apparently, the Pirates of the Caribbean had nothing on the Pirates of the Mediterranean.

These early agreements laid the philosophical foundation of shared risk which eventually evolved into the insurance industry we have today. Then, as now, the basic concepts of insurance were:

Everyone paid a modest fee to protect themselves against loss.

If a protected person or company suffered loss, they would recoup their losses from the insurer.

Insurance in a more modern form was born in Genoa, Italy in the 1300s. The insurance still mainly involved insuring merchants and their vessels and cargo, but the dealings were more formalized and written down in contract form.

The Great Fire of London is likely what started the idea of homeowner’s insurance. Following the fire in 1666, companies in London started offering insurance for homes against fire.

As for insurance in the United States, it was none other than the eminent Benjamin Franklin who introduced the concept, forming a mutual benefit society which protected its members against loss by fire. While you couldn’t get online insurance quotes from his Philadelphia Contributorship, you could obtain policies through Mr. Franklin or one of the other society’s members.

The conventional wisdom says that you need to have life insurance in order to make sure that your loved ones are protected in case something happens to you. The fact of the matter is that the life insurance companies want you to believe this. While it’s true for many folks that having some life insurance can bring the peace of mind that your family will be taken care of if you die, before you go out looking for online insurance quotes you might take a couple of extra minutes to reflect on your individual situation.

There are some specific reasons why you may not actually need life insurance:

You don’t have any family or friends. If you’re alone in the world, chances are pretty good that no one you care about is going to financially be impacted by your death. However, if you have even one relative or friend that cares about you, life insurance is probably a good idea.

You hate your family and friends. Having them doesn’t mean loving them, does it? If you want to really show them some spite, try dying in such a way that you create additional financial debt for them. We suggest pancreatic cancer, if you can handle the pain.

Your agent wants you to buy whole life. OK, we get that whole life policies let you make investments all while buying peace of mind. Most experts agree (at least, those that aren’t insurance agents) that you are better off keeping your investments and your insurance separate.

You’re filthy stinking rich already. If you’ve got $50 million in the bank, you probably don’t need to worry about a life insurance policy. Just make sure to design your estate in such a way that the government doesn’t get to keep most of it when you do pass away.

You’re immortal. Ancient Greek gods and Dick Clark probably don’t need to worry about dying anytime soon. The rest of you should at least get some online insurance quotes and make an informed decision about how to provide for your loved ones once you’re gone.

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